HALIFAX!

Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia

Hello Everyone from the East Coast of Canada!

Myself (Christian), and Jenna, are now here in Halifax, Nova Scotia! We made it!

Ready for the rain in Quebec

We had to ride hard without hardly any rest days in order to finish quickly, as Jenna has a very important wedding on the West Coast (Bethany and Derrick), and I had my mum and brother flying in to meet me in Halfiax. So we pushed on to finish as fast as we could, and now we are here! We did close to 30 days of cycling with only one day off!

It is surreal to be done, and I will spend ten days here before I fly back to the West Coast. Jenna and I have already been discussing and processing the trip and what it has taught both of us. It has been truly incredible, and will be something we will always cherish.

Thank you all the family and friends who believed in us and supported us along the way, and to all the people who aided us in our journey with kindness and hospitality.

The cycler's toast I thought of:

May the wind be at your back,
May the shoulder be ever wide,
And may the downhills always be longer than the ups!

Here is to cycling Canada!

Leaving Ottawa

I've been sitting here trying to type a blog entry but to be honest I don't really know what they've been through since their last blog post.
Hi, I'm Jeremy's sister, Kathy. I'm here to just show you a ton of pictures.
I hope you don't mind.

Parliament, Road Trips, and the Flu

Hey everyone!

Sooooooo, it's been a while since our last update and there have been some developments.

First, due to time constraints, Christian and Jenna decided not to take a day off in Sault Ste. Marie and they are now in New Brunswick.

Megan and Ben arrived in Ottawa almost a week and a half ago and have been staying at my mom's house most of that time. We decided to have an extended layover here so that I could visit with my family. I was able to see my little sister and nephew, Austin (who has started walking since the last time I saw him, a year and a half ago), as well as my older sister and her family (including meeting my youngest niece, Dahlia, for the first time!). We also took a drive out to Quebec City for a few days so that we wouldn't have to stop there later on. Unfortunately Megan and I both ended up catching a bit of a stomach flu as well.

That's about it for now, we're going to head out now and start the final leg of our trip. Halifax in two weeks! My sister's going to post pictures of us at some point.

Bye for now!

Jeremy

Ontario, Super Mario

Hey everyone!

Sorry it's been so long. Internet access is SO hard to find for a traveller in Canada unless you knock on people's houses (which I'm not partial for). I'll give you a brief layout of what's been happening.

Moosejaw to Grenfell (regina, indian head, grenfell)
-day off in Regina
-tents flooded in the middle of the night in Grenfell because of storm 1 and ended up in a motel. Grenfell...is umm...NOT a place I want to go back to.
-chewed up by mosquitoes, noseeums, and black flys

Grenfell-Winnipeg (moosomin, miniota, minnidosa, portage, winnipeg)
-day off in grenfell because of thunder storm 2
-put in the moosomin newspaper and stayed the night at the reporters house
-a lot of broken spokes on Christian's new bike
-christian hitch hiking to Winnipeg to get his bike fixed
-Jeremy, Megan and I caught in thunder storm 3 on our way to portage le prairie
-Jenna hitch hiking the rest of the way to portage (20km)
-Thunder storm 4 into winnipeg
-Thunder storm 4 into winnipeg
-free showers from someone who lived in Miniota who later accused us for stealing her phone...

Winnipeg-Thunder Bay (pine creek, kenora, vermillion bay, dryden, ignace, upsala, thunder bay)
-Cycled with a guy named Julian from Victoria for three days
-Got to our half way mark!
-Entered Ontario!
-Cycled with a guy named Ben from Britian for ...well it's been over a week and he's still with us!!
-Cycled with a guy named Johannes from Germany for one day
-Caught in Storm number 5 that lasted 5 hours
-Jeremy's back tire popped so he hitch hiked into Thunder Bay (100Km)
-Another broken spoke on Christian's bike an he hitch hiked to thunder bay(90km)
-day off in Thunder Bay

Thunder Bay - Terrace Bay (Nipigon, Rossport, Terrace Bay)
-we've been hitting some very steep and long climbs again and it feels like we're back in the fraser canyon...or even the rockies at times
-rossport people are unwelcoming but the beach was beautiful
-terrace bay is beautiful

Long time, no see.

Hey everyone!

Sorry it's been such a long time since our last update. We haven't had much access to the internet.
The past couple of weeks have been going well. We've had an unusual amount of mechanical malfunctions. Most just some broken spokes, although I did have to buy a new tire in Thunder Bay because my other one wore out.
We met a few other cyclists who we joined up with. Julian (from Victoria, BC) and Johanos (from Germany) have since left and continued at their own pace. We met Ben (from England) at the Manitoba/Ontario border and he has been riding with us ever since. He's riding from Vancouver to Halifax in order to raise money for injured servicemen.
There is so much more to tell, but I have to be going now. I will try to update again once we hit Sudbury (hopefully in about a week and a half).

Take care!

Jeremy

On The Road Again

June 4th, 2010, I (Christian) was riding just past Moose Jaw when I was cut off by a truck and collided into the side of the vehicle. I remained conscious and waited for the ambulance. Five hours later I was discharged from the hospital with some fractured fingers, a deep muscle contusion to my left thigh, some general muscle pain due to the trauma of the impact, and a lot of morphine.

Our recent acquaintances in Caronport, SK, Don and Ellie Wall, graciously took us back into their home. I was a wreck physically and emotionally, traumatized by the flashbacks, the plethora of body pain, and the feeling of helplessness as I could hardly stand up out of the bed. I cried more tears this week than any other week of my life. My wonderful girlfriend, Jenna Webb, took care of me for the seven days while we stayed with the Wall's, and I would not have healed so fast if it wasn't for her constant care.

I would also like to thank some medical help I received: Dr. Susan Bell, who bandaged my hand over and over again, and my physiotherapist, Mr. Van Hennegam, who speeded the healing in my leg and motivated me to be positive and prayerful about the situation.

6 days after the accident, I received a phone call from my dad saying he was driving out to help me and bring a new bike. I burst into tears of joy while I sat in the Medical Clinic's waiting room. This was a shining moment in the midst of the ongoing drudge of unknowns.

The new bike was coming from Bastion Cycle in Nanaimo, Vancouver Island. The owner and friend, Jeff Goerz, discounted the bike and all the gear! And even gave free labour to help us out. It was unbelievable.

We had decided to move to Moose Jaw for one week, and then try to continue our ride from there. We again received amazing kindness from multiple people. The Raine's hosted Megan and Jenna, and Evelyn Falk, a woman whom we also had never met, hosted us for the week. Evelyn also took my dad in while he was here.

During our time in Moose Jaw things started looking up. Insurance was helping us out a lot, even covering my dad's travel expenses to get out here and back! My new bike was getting set up, my body was getting more mobile, and I was spending time with my dad. There was lots to smile about!

While in Moose Jaw, I got to catch up with Peter and Sandy Falk. These are dear friends and beautiful people, and I can honestly say that it was worth the accident to see them again and
share some laughs and tears.

We are now gearing up to go again! And we will be shortening out distances for a while until my body is completely back to normal. But it will be great to get back on the road again.

I thank all the people who have helped us in the last two weeks, and I thank all the thoughts and prayers that have been made on our behalf. I had phone calls and e-mails from people I had never met, and I am encouraged by them all. This was a difficult experience, but God has brought good out of it and enriched me with it.

May all get to experience the kindness and generosity that has been shown to us,

-Christian Pye

Home, home on the range...

Howdy folks!

So for those of you who don't know, we ended up staying in Calgary two days longer than we had expected due to snowy weather.
Now, however, we find ourselves in Caronport, Saskatchewan. The Rockies have long since disappeared over the western horizon and in infront of us lies about 1000km of wide open terrain before we arrive in Northern Ontario.
It's been interesting to see the landscape change, and with it, the wildlife. Each place has its staple rodent. In the Fraser Canyon we saw marmots, followed by columbian ground squirrels in the mountains; now, it's gophers. These are by far the dumbest of the small rodents that we have encountered. Biking through the prairies we have been able to keep ourselves amused by counting the dead gophers on the side of the road. Today, within the first hour of biking, Megan counted over 140. Aside from them we have also seen herds of antelope (including babies) and a few coyotes. Some signs along the road warned us of wild buffalo, but alas, the prairies have not yet delivered on this promise.
The prairie folk have lived up to their name in that they have all been very kind and welcoming. As we make our way along the highway we are greeting with a long of honking and waving (we even had a train honk at us!)
The winds have also been good to us helping us to pedal along at 40km/h and coast up the rolling hills.
Well, that's about it for now. The week has been relatively uneventful. We'll update again from Winnipeg!

Jeremy

Distances travelled since Calgary: Sun.150km, Mon.150km, Tue.90km, Wed.130km, Thur.160km